‘Hello, congressman? ... This is Bill Clinton’

Bill Clinton is more than a decade removed from the White House, but if you were to look at the cellphone bills of some House Democrats, you wouldn’t know it. For a select group of Capitol Hill lawmakers — call them the Bill Clinton Caucus — the former president is a familiar voice on the other end of the line.

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Sometimes Clinton is on the hunt for intel on competitive congressional races in districts he’ll be traveling to. At other times, he wants to know about pending bills or to see what kind of messaging his party will be using. Or the former president might just be calling to check in and shoot the breeze.

When Rep. Nita Lowey hears from Clinton — she has been his congresswoman ever since he moved to New York — the two often talk foreign policy. But the discussion also veers to nonwork items, she said, such as Chappaqua restaurant recommendations.

The calls reinforce the former president’s reputation as thoroughbred political animal. Unlike some pols energized primarily by the power, Clinton thrives on the nitty-gritty mechanics, the tending to personal relationships, everything.

His close contact with members of Congress is something of a counterpoint to the current president, who has all but said he’d rather stay home and watch ESPN or read to his kids than schmooze with senators. For many lawmakers, getting a phone call from President Barack Obama to talk about the intricacies of a policy matter or how their reelection campaign is going would be unthinkable.

A Clinton spokesman declined to comment for this story. But the former president’s allies say it shouldn’t come as a shock that he’s immersed in conversations with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“He’s got a lot of relationships, a lot of good relationships with folks on the Hill. It doesn’t come as a surprise that he wants to talk about policy first and politics second,” said Mo Elleithee, a Democratic operative who worked for Hillary Clinton in 2008. “They’re two of his favorite subjects.”

Clinton’s Hill call list consists mostly of the House Democrats who served in his administration, who supported his wife’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign or who got to know him well while he was in the White House. One of the people he’s in touch with is Rep. John Garamendi, a longtime pol who served as Clinton’s 1992 California campaign chairman and who then landed a post in the Interior Department.

When the two get in touch, Clinton’s mostly interested in messaging ideas. But he has also offered the California congressman words of advice, which Garamendi said he wanted to keep private.

“The president and I have had conversations for 20 years now,” Garamendi said.

Sometimes the calls are scheduled, with one of Clinton’s assistants coordinating times for the former president to reach the House member. When it’s time for the call to take place, the assistant will reach the lawmaker and then patch Clinton through.

At other times, he just calls out of the blue.

On a hot afternoon in June 2011, Rep. Steve Israel, the newly appointed Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, was taking a jog on the Mall and relishing a rare moment of free time. Then his phone buzzed. The New York Democrat answered and was surprised to hear Clinton’s voice.

As the congressman looked for shade, the former president launched in. He wanted to know how candidate recruitment was going and, after the disastrous 2010 midterms, was curious about what plans the committee had to protect Democratic incumbents. The former president wanted granular, district-by-district information.

And with the looming presidential election to dominate the political conversation over the coming year, what, he wondered, would be the party’s message in congressional races?

The conversation, which Israel expected to last about five minutes, went on for 80 minutes.

“He’s detailed and tenacious,” said Israel, who fielded several more calls from the former president before the 2012 election. “It’s Bill Clinton. It’s in his DNA. You can take Bill Clinton out of politics, but you can’t take the political interest out of Bill Clinton.”

Recipients of the calls say Clinton is typically in good spirits and polite, making sure to say “goodbye” before hanging up.

Unlike Israel’s extended dialogue, many of the conversations are as short as three or four minutes. Some of the lawmakers say they try to keep their comments short so as not to take up too much of Clinton’s time.

Israel, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2008, says the former president sometimes asks about whether a message will resonate in a specific media market. And before visiting a district to campaign for a congressional candidate, the former president wants to know about everything — from polling numbers to fundraising performance.

“This is not a commando raid,” said Israel. “He wants to have specifics.”

On at least one occasion, Clinton has played matchmaker. The day after the 2012 election, he phoned New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a former Clinton administration official who had just won his first term.

After quickly congratulating Maloney, the former president got to the real business at hand: telling the soon-to-be congressman to get in touch with another just-elected lawmaker, Maryland Rep. John Delaney, a financier and Clinton supporter. The two could work together, Clinton told Maloney.

With former Rep. Leonard Boswell, the chitchat skips from Iowa politics to family life. Clinton will often talk about Hillary and Chelsea and asking about ex-lawmaker’s wife and three children, Boswell said.

One of Boswell’s last conversations with Clinton came shortly after his November reelection loss. The two had known each other since the early 1990s, when Clinton was preparing to run for president and Boswell was serving in the Iowa Senate. The former president had offered Boswell advice throughout the hard-fought 2012 race and had traveled to his southwest Iowa district to campaign for him.

Now the president was calling to offer the fallen eight-term congressman some measure of comfort.